Find Your Life Mission and Live It

If you want more than a job change, if you want more than a career change, if what you really desire is a meaningful life change… maybe it’s time you thought about changing course.

But how do you begin? How do you discover your life mission or tap into your true calling? And even if you do, how can you turn your dreams into reality? I mean, the bills are still coming in. And your family and friends will probably tell you you're out of your mind.

Hi, my name is Valerie Young, and I'd like to tell you that you aren't crazy in the least.

The truth is: You can escape the 9-to-5 world (or maybe for you it's more like 8-to-late). You can find ways to do what you love, and get paid for it. You can create a life where there is balance... and time for the people and things that matter most...

At Changing Course we help you do it.

My goal for Changing Course is simple: To provide you with resources, tools, perspective, and inspiration to help you discover and follow your dreams of a more fulfilling life working at what you love. 

First, let me back up for a minute and tell you a little more about who I am. Thirteen years ago, I was in your shoes. I was approaching midlife when I began asking myself in earnest if I really believed I was meant to spend my best years commuting 90 miles a day to a stressful job. Was it mid-life career crisis? Perhaps.

To me, though, it became a quest to achieve not only what the Buddhists call "right livelihood," but to fulfill my yearning for vastly more control over my life and time.

(Learn more about how I quit my job and found my life.) 

Work Should Do More
Than Just Pay the Bills

Let me cut to the chase: As far as I'm concerned, life is too short to spend toiling at a job that pays the bills but doesn't feed your spirit.

And I'm not just saying that for effect. People who are happy with their work actually live longer. Duke University researchers found that the top predictor of a long life in the United States – even more important than good health habits or good genes – is work satisfaction.

I mean, it makes perfect sense. Do you really think you were put on this planet to spend your weekends running around like a nut doing all the errands you have no time for during the week? Do you believe, deep inside, that your life calling revolves around performance reviews, pointless meetings, or a never ending stream of email?

Neither do I.

You know, before I go on I should make one thing very clear: If you are hoping to find here a "fast and easy" way to change the course of your life, you will be disappointed. Changing course simply isn't as easy as the get-rich-quick scammers want you to believe. It is, however, a journey worth making.

And if you are willing to take that first, bold step on behalf of your dreams, Changing Course is here to help you create a road map, provide you support and encouragement, and give you the tools you need to make your dream life a reality.

It Has Been Said That the Only Real Success is
Being Able to Spend Your Life in Your Own Way

In my own transition from cubicle-dweller to happy work-from-home career counselor I discovered that changing course is not an event — it's a process. I call it the 10 Steps to Escaping the Job World and Creating the Life You Really Want (learn more about the 10 Steps).

Today, I feel blessed with riches no amount of money can buy. 

Now, I work for meaning, not money. 

I work hard, often putting in long hours. But I also enjoy considerably more control over my time and life (not to mention being able to knock off some household chores while I wait for my email to download or take off in the middle of the day for a walk on a nearby nature trail). 

I'm not what you'd call a morning person. In the old days I used to be jarred out of bed by an alarm clock. Today I wake up when I want.

I have a comfortable, two-minute commute from my bedroom to my home office. 

I set my own vacation policy and, in the warmer months, I even have time to enjoy my garden. 

Since I started Changing Course I've heard from many thousands of people around the world who are determined to trade in their designer suits for a life that they design. 

Is Making a Meaningful
Career Change Really Worth It?

Lots of people wonder whether making a major career change is worth it. After all, it's a lot easier to stay stuck, even if that means being miserable.

I'd argue it's worth every bit of effort. Take Stephanie Manriquez. At 50, she was thinking about quitting her job in Tacoma, Washington and move 300 miles to attend massage therapy school. A part of her was not so sure she was doing the right thing.

Stephanie wrote to ask, "Am I crazy?"  My reply was quite simple: "If making a major work and career change is your dream, you'd be crazy not to go for it!" 

Getting a Life: One Woman's
True Story of Changing Course 

Stephanie did go for it… and today, she's reinvented her life entirely. "I've never regretted my decision for one minute!" she says. Here's the letter she sent me a year after that first, uncertain correspondence…  

Dear Valerie,

I began reading Changing Course last year when I wanted to return to my hometown of Bend, Oregon. My job, at that time, would not allow me to live in Bend and work out of Tacoma, Washington. I left Bend seven years ago and had missed it ever since.

Getting back wasn't going to be easy – I thought! The light bulb went on one day in February 1998 when I realized I did not have to support six kids anymore since they had left the nest in the past two years. I enjoyed my job as a cake-decorating consultant, but longed for the high desert of Central Oregon.

A few phone calls about renting a room from an old family friend and taking classes as the local college began my journey back home to Bend. I moved August 1998. All my belongings went into storage. My only surroundings now are a bed, clothes and computer. I got a part-time job at Starbuck's because they offer full-time medical benefits to part-time employees and started school in September as a full-time student in the Licensed Massage Therapy Program here. 

Did I mention that I'm 51 years old, a single mother of six, the grandmother of eight, a widow at 27 and after remarrying, divorced at 33, and I had never been farther than high school?

Everyday is wonderful and the feelings that come from being back home are beyond words. I love my new life and am looking forward to graduation this year. The mountains are snow-covered, the trees are so green and the sky is bluer in Bend. I can walk to work, to school and the store. What more could one ask for? It was scary and exciting all at once, but I took a leap of faith and have never regretted the move.

Money isn't everything and life is much too short to squander it. I notice the same theme in all your stories, the fears, the hopes and the relief once the move is made. If I could say one thing to help one person take the plunge, it would be that the benefits far outweigh the rest!

Stephanie Manriquez
Bend, Oregon

When Life is Rich, Success is That Much Sweeter

Then, just this past month, Stephanie wrote to me again with more good news…

Dear Valerie,

I am now a licensed massage therapist in Bend Oregon. I went on to get my Associates of Applied Science in Massage Therapy. I just opened my second office practice and LOVE what I do. I am on the Oregon Board of Massage Therapist, work with a panel for the National Board of Massage Therapist and Bodywork, and teach in the massage therapy program at our local community college, Central Oregon Community College.

I am also working on my Bachelor's Degree from Eastern Oregon University. Things have been GREAT for me. I would recommend your newsletter to ANYONE! I made hard decisions and risky choices to start over almost 6 years ago.

I have NEVER regretted my decision one moment! Thanks for being there!

Stephanie Manriquez AAS LMT NCBTMB

Take Advantage of the Many Resources Here

at Changing Course… All Geared to Helping You

Find and Follow Your Dreams

If you, too, share a deep desire to live your life on purpose, to work at what you love, and to follow your own road, I hope this site can help you make that exciting and spiritually enriching journey to a life you truly love.

Every two weeks, I send out a free newsletter packed full of tools and tips, inspiration and information to help you figure out what you really want… and then get it. T

If the idea of loving what you do appeals to you, then I strongly encourage you to give your dream the attention it deserves. Find out how you can escape the J-O-B box… and uncover a whole new world of possibilities.

Please, take advantage of the many resources I've gathered here at Changing Course – free articles, back issues of the newsletter, books, resources, even personalized career counseling to help you figure out what you really, really love... and how to make a living doing it.

Welcome to a whole new world of possibility. I look forward to helping you follow your dreams!

Warmly,

Dreamer in Residence at Changing Course

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